Editorial: Land grab by city is off-base

Friday, July 27, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas' plan to annex 80 square miles in the northwest is disturbing. For starters, the ill-conceived proposal could harm the environmentally sensitive federal land that the city covets. Endangered species are located in the Desert National Wildlife Area and any development obviously would be viewed dimly by federal wildlife officials. In addition, federal sanctions could be imposed on the region -- including a growth moratorium -- if development were to undermine the wildlife or the county's plans to protect air quality.

The timing for the land grab also is bizarre. After all, U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign recently unveiled their bipartisan strategy to have local, state and federal officials work with developers and environmentalists to devise a comprehensive growth plan that also would set aside enough land for conservation. Trying to incorporate all this land into the city, which would double its geographic size, certainly is brazen. So much for cooperation.

The smell of retribution lingers over the land acquisition bid as well, especially since the City Council recently was on the losing end of a city-county spat over air quality regulation. And while government leaders from the city of Las Vegas and Clark County never will be mistaken for bosom buddies, the city's plan will make this strained relationship even worse.

If the city had wanted to be taken seriously about expanding its borders to allow for more growth, it first would have told its residents why such growth -- which will mean more taxpayer money to pay for additional roads, schools, public safety, social services, etc. -- was necessary. It also would have helped if the city had shared its plans in advance so that it could have seen if the county had anything on its drawing board. The city sent a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on July 19 in which it sought to annex the land -- but county planners weren't informed of this dramatic move until a week later. For that matter, the BLM, which owns much of the land being sought, opposes the annexation.

One of the most common complaints that valley residents have about the City Council and the County Commission is that one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing. This lack of communication has resulted in poor planning and bad zoning decisions, which have hurt the quality of life. Instead of compounding previous mistakes, the city should be learning from them. The city of Las Vegas should withdraw its hasty annexation plan.